28 June 2012

News Commentary 28 June 2012 (1)

A few thoughts regarding the
Supreme Court decision today....what it means for the American Church and what
the present social polarization points to in the coming days, months and years.

First a few specific points of
consideration....

1.Romney has been avoiding an in-depth healthcare
discussion due to the conservative condemnation of his Massachusetts programme.
But now, Evangelicals more than ever will be polarized by the Supreme Court
ruling the health reform as Constitutional. They will rally around Romney who
has promised to work towards repealing Obama's reform....even though putting
the rhetoric into action will be difficult.

·Some of the provisions have already proved
popular, i.e. forced acceptance of pre-existing conditions, children staying on
policies to age 26 etc...

·He's already indicated he wants to keep some of
these provisions, but if he strikes down the individual mandate/tax
penalty....then the insurance companies will quickly turn on him. They were
willing to have their profits regulated like utility companies and to accept
pre-existing conditions if they could have access to the 30 million or so new
clients. This doesn't include the other 15-20 million who will be on the
Medicaid expansion.

2.Conservatives will excoriate Chief Justice
Roberts and accuse him of legislating from the bench. For all the talk of this
in Christian circles, I have generally found conservatives to be more guilty in
this regard. Even today I heard quotes from conservative congressmen who wanted
the court to rule on 'bad policy'...indicating they don't understand the
court's role.

·Though I'm hardly a fan of Roberts, he showed a
great deal of integrity in his opinion. From his confirmation hearings to the
present he indicated that it's not his job to determine if a law is 'good or
bad' but if it is within the boundaries of the Constitution. He may not like
the law (which Christians think is a criteria for a conservative judge to
strike it down) but he understands the court's role is not to make decisions like
that.

·Judicial Restraint demands that he doesn't
receive a law and rub his hands together looking for every possible way to
strike it down. Rather he's to understand the Legislative Branch passed the law
and he's to uphold the spirit of the law they passed...if possible. So, if the
law is compatible but needs to re-worded or tweaked, he can take that into
account. If need be he can send it back with comment. In this case, the tax
argument was used as a secondary position. Politically untenable the Obama
administration (in the process of bungling this whole process) pushed the
mandate angle to the public. If they had originally presented it as a tax or an
extension of Medicare/Medicaid then it wouldn't have even gone to court. The
power to tax is already a resolved issue. Roberts looked at the law and saw
that it wasn't a problem at all if viewed as a tax penalty instead of a mandate
falling under the Commerce Clause.

·Incentives and penalties are already legally
established. The government pushes for certain building standards. If you use
efficient or environmentally beneficial products you can get a break. If you
don't you might have to pay a penalty....i.e. a tax.

·In addition, just like in the Bush v. Gore case,
there are times when time is of the essence and in this case to send it back,
knowing that it only needed a slight modification and would pass again and
re-start the whole litigation process...would be irresponsible. Further delay
would potentially throw the country into turmoil as some provisions would be in
the process of activating... while the whole thing was still tied up in
litigation...taking at least another year to make it back to the court and
potentially harming the national economy.

3.The fact that Roberts himself authored the
Citizens United decision is ironic. As the commentators keep pointing out, the
Health Care Reform is really going to a referendum status. An Obama victory is
a vindication. An Obama defeat is a partial rejection. A wave election...a
Romney victory and a Republican capture of the Senate will mean the law will be
either overturned or severely modified, hence a rejection of the law regardless
of its Constitutional standing.

· Citizens
United has been unanimously interpreted as a boon to the Republican party. The unrestricted
millions flowing into Republican coffers will certainly aid them in November.
As annoying and absurd as the advertisements are...they seem to work. It's
quite a commentary on the state of our society.

4.The propaganda machine will work powerfully in
Christian circles. Fear is a huge factor in American Evangelicalism...fear of
change, fear of the 'other', and fear of a federal government embracing what
they wrongly believe to be an internationalist conspiracy. There is an
internationalist conspiracy...it's called the United States Establishment.

·The real issues in this election, in fact many
of the real issues in society will be clouded by this issue which they will
play for all its worth.

·They will insist it's about 'life' and that
Obama's reforms will promote abortion etc...

·This will ignore the fact that our military is
busy killing people in other countries and the poverty in part exacerbated by
the current state of health care is destroying lives in many ways and forms.
They're so worried about infant 'life'....or are they? Is this just used as a
tool to reach a massive financial and voting bloc?...and yet they won't lift a
finger to help that life succeed and prosper in society. So then when the poor
and disenfranchised die at 18 or 40....these patriots, these conservatives,
don't seem to care.

And a few related comments....

·I actually heard the supposedly Christian
financial advisor Dave Ramsey advising a medical student who called in to think
about another career as the Obama plan will destroy the medical industry and
there's no future in it. He often gives terrible and unbiblical advice but in
this case I was quite surprised. If anything he's good at numbers. Almost fifty
million new patients entering the health care arena....I would say the medical
industry is probably a pretty safe field to enter for the next generation or
so!

·I've been astounded to hear many Christian
leaders argue that by allowing these millions of people access to health care
will mean they (the Christian leaders) won't be able to receive the treatments
and tests they've been used to. Effectively this will be 'rationing' the likes
of James Dobson and Cal Thomas argue. Regardless of what one thinks of the
Obama legislation, they seemed to have missed the point that the 50 million or
so people have for all these years been socially 'rationed' out of health care.
And, are they that cold hearted they're willing to let so many suffer and die,
so that they can be comforted? Certainly they've 'earned' their incomes and
health care right? Living off donations? For so many 'ministry' leaders to
speak this way takes some serious audacity.

·And more than once I've heard conservatives
argue over the nomenclature surrounding the word 'insurance'. Insurance is
about cost-benefit ratios and calculated risk. To speak of insurance as some
kind of right or necessity is ridiculous.

Of course this
argument is ridiculous. This social debate isn't about insurance. It's about access.
The costs are so high, even middle class people can't afford them. This isn't
about financial instruments and risk...this is about people being able to get
to a doctor without losing their house.

For the poor, a lack
of insurance often means no access except the local Emergency Room which by law
cannot turn you away. Often they don't need emergency care and they certainly
don't need the titanic bills that follow from an Emergency Room visit...bills
they often cannot pay. But in desperation they have nowhere else to turn.

The fact that this
is all reduced to some kind of insurance structure shows that the system doesn't
reflect reality and that market forces don't always act as a corrective.
Eventually the market will collapse and change. But how many thousands have to
die in order for the Capitalist market to shift? Is the integrity of the system
and its apologetic more important than lives and humanity?

1 comment:

Teresa
said...

I have a friend who got sick at 28. She was diagnosed with a rare kidney disorder. Eventually she capped out on her health insurance and they cancelled her. It was and still is a horrible situation. This was a smart, strong woman who many of these "Christian sacralist" types would have dismissed as a burden on society. She is saddled with more medical bills than she could pay in a lifetime, and when she got married her Husband could not add her to his insurance because of a pre-existing condition. As a Christian this grieves me, I see this every day where I live and I don't understand how anyone who claims to love Jesus Christ can not rejoice at least in the fact that some of these folks can get medical care. I was up most of the night thinking about these things, praying and reading scripture. Your post really helped me put things in perspective. God bless you Brother.